Used a brush without a rest? Say goodbye to drip dodging ๐Ÿ‘‡

Paint Gear That Stops the Mess Before It Starts

The tin is where most of the mess comes from

A 4 litre tin is a terrible thing to work out of, and almost nobody says so. It is heavy enough that you cannot hold it while you cut in, the rim fills with paint the moment you start wiping a brush on it, and once that rim has dried the lid never seals properly again, so the next time you open it there are flakes of hard paint sitting in the top of your good paint.

So the single best change most people can make is to stop painting out of the tin at all.

Decant into something you can actually hold

A handy paint pot holds a litre or so, has a handle sized for a hand rather than for a shelf, and weighs almost nothing when it is half full. You can carry it up a ladder, hold it while you cut in behind a door, and set it down without worrying about knocking over the whole job.

Pour what you need into it, put the lid straight back on the tin, and keep the rim clean with a rag as you go. That one habit keeps the paint in the tin usable for the second coat and for the touch up in two years.

A tray with a proper ramp does more than it looks like it does

The ridged section of a roller tray is not decoration. Loading a roller means rolling it up and down that ramp so the paint works evenly into the nap and the excess comes back off, and a roller that has been dunked in the well and lifted straight out carries far too much paint on one side. That is where the fat streak down the wall comes from.

Get a tray sized to the roller you are using. A 270mm roller in a 230mm tray means you are loading two thirds of the sleeve properly and dragging the rest through the edge of the tray.

Canvas on the floor, not plastic

Plastic sheeting is cheap and it is genuinely worse. Paint sits wet on top of it for ages and then transfers onto your shoes and gets walked through the house, and the plastic slides about underfoot on a hard floor, which matters a lot when you are on a ladder.

Canvas absorbs the drips, stays where you put it, and lasts for years of jobs. It is the one item on this list that costs more up front and is clearly cheaper over time.

An extension pole saves your shoulder and your finish

A pole lets you roll a whole wall from floor to ceiling without moving a ladder every 600mm, which means fewer breaks in the wet edge, and fewer lap marks. It also lets you stand back far enough to see what you are doing, which is most of the reason a roller on a pole gives a more even wall than a roller in your hand does.

The shoulder relief is a bonus, and after a full ceiling you will be very aware of it.

Tape, and taking it seriously

Masking tape is doing two jobs at once, protecting the edge and holding your drop sheet down at the skirting so it does not wander. Buy the width that suits the trim you are protecting rather than using one roll for everything.

Clean up before it goes hard

A wire roller cleaner strips the paint out of a sleeve in under a minute while it is still wet, and a sleeve cleaned properly goes back on the wall again next year. One left to dry in the tray goes in the bin. The same goes for brushes, and if you are coming back to the same colour tomorrow you can wrap a loaded brush tightly rather than washing it at all.

Shop related products

The rest of it is in the paint and accessories range.

Did you know we also stock Uni-Pro handy paint pots in 1.2 litre and 3.3 litre, plus rolls of masking film with a dispenser for covering a window or a whole run of cupboards in one go, and none of those are listed on the website. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

More from All things Paint

I am firmly on the side of the canvas drop sheet, and I will happily talk anybody out of the plastic one.

Cheers,
Candeece

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